02 December, 2016

EU budget could be spent developing arms for Saudi Arabia

In what has been described
as a departure from the EU's founding purpose, a new 'European
Defence Fund' could be used to develop weapons for authoritarian
regimes

A new, centralised EU fund for
defence could be spent on developing weapons for authoritarian
regimes, prompting tens of thousands of people to sign a petition
against its creation.

The budget for the ‘European
Defence Fund’ was approved in Brussels on Thursday, meaning arms
companies will receive money to develop weapons directly from the
European Union, in a significant departure from the EU’s founding
mission as a preserver of peace.

Countries contributing to the
fund, which will is currently only at trial stage, but may eventually
hold billions of euros, would be able to offset their contributions
against their overall payments to the EU budget.

But the proposals also recommend a
lifting of a ban on the EU using its budget to pay for research and
development into military technology, an undertaking that national
armed forces have previously done by themselves. It means that
military hardware developed in collaboration between different EU
states could then be sold to other regimes with dubious human rights
records.

64,000 people have signed a
petition against the fund, which says that ‘The goal of these
subsidies is to preserve the competitiveness of the arms industry and
its capacity to export abroad, including to countries contributing to
instability and taking part in deadly conflicts.’

According to Andrew Smith from
pressure group Campaign Against the Arms Trade:

"The EU was founded as a
peace project and that's what it should be. It should not be using
public money to fund research for those that profit from war and
conflict. This proposal could mean taking funds from other projects
for something that would only benefit arms companies. When taken
alongside the move towards a shared defence fund it is clear that we
are seeing a consious militarisation of Europe.”

“Earlier this year the
European Parliament voted to support an arms embargo against Saudi
Arabia, now it must stand up against public funding for the kind of
companies that are profiting from the bombing. The EU should be
working for peaceful solutions to conflict, not handling over
millions of pounds to arms companies."

Leading EU figures believe a
centralised defence fund and pooled spending on development will
improve Europe’s security. On launching the proposals, European
Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said: “To guarantee our
collective security, we must invest in the common development of
technologies and equipment of strategic importance – from land,
air, sea and space capabilities to cyber security. It requires more
cooperation between Member States and greater pooling of national
resources. If Europe does not take care of its own security, nobody
else will do it for us. A strong, competitive and innovative defence
industrial base is what will give us strategic autonomy."

The EU has previously deployed
peacekeeping forces before, and also coordinated a militarised
response to piracy in Somalia.

A spokesperson for the EU
Commission said: “There is nothing new in EU defence
cooperation, it makes sense to work together more closely and the
objective is precisely to help preserve peace, not only in Europe and
its neighbourhood but far beyond.”